Thursday, 30 July 2009

A few more exotica for your perusal, though looks like I'm a bit light on decent photos. However, I'm determined to get through the list now (even if part of the motive is to clear some hard disk space by deleting duplicate / soft / appalling photos)!

112. Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird - one or two seen briefly at Faraba Banta113. Bearded Barbet - several seen, included around the Senegambia and at Abuko. Disappointingly, no good photos, since these are rather smart114. African Pied Hornbill - only seen at Abuko, together with...

115. African Grey Hornbill - at Abuko and Bijilo116. Red-billed Hornbill - common, numerous around the hotel and various other sites117. Grey Woodpecker - one very obliging bird around the hotel pool on the last day, plus others at Abuko and Brufut, for instance

118. Cardinal Woodpecker - one seen on the first day around the hotel grounds, and none thereafter!119. Brown-backed Woodpecker - one at Tujering120. Lesser Honeyguide - one at Abuko was another of Ebrima's good finds121. Wryneck - one at Tujering showed briefly122. Crested Lark - seen at Faraba Banta123. Fanti Saw-wing - brilliant name! Seen well at Abuko124. Wire-tailed Swallow - quite common, seen best around Kotu and the track at Pirang125. Mosque Swallow - Faraba Banta126. Red-chested Swallow - only noted at Kotu, though I'm sure we must have seen more than this!127. Fork-tailed Drongo - another great name, seen at Faraba Banta and Abuko128. Yellow Wagtail - seen at Faraba Banta and on the beach at Tanji (apparently flava race)129. White Wagtail - also Tanji beach130. Common Bulbul - very abundant!

133. Grey-headed Bristlebill - almost the first bird we saw at Abuko... a good way to start134. Oriole Warbler - rather difficult, only seen at Bijilo, and then after a struggle135. Blackcap Babbler - easiest near the entrance to Abuko136. Brown Babbler - common around the hotel and various other sites

137. Whinchat - a couple at Tujering138. Wheatear - one at Tujering139. White-fronted Black Chat - apparently quite a difficult bird to get, we saw one quite well around some partially built buildings at Tujering

Tuesday, 28 July 2009

Still off work, hacking away like a 90-a-day smoker, so I'm looking for vaguely productive things to do. The laundry basket is slowly getting emptied (still haven't discovered a way to automate the process, though), and I've actually written up a description of the Ortolan Bunting I found at Rainham, almost a year ago. This is very, very late indeed, and I have no excuse. But I do have a photo with which to wind you all up. Look, isn't it lovely?

Anyway, this is supposed to be about the Gambia, not gripping off London birders. Shocking behaviour. Where was I? Ah yes, the best bit! There may be rather a high density of photos for a while: we don't see many of these in the UK...

101. Broad-billed Roller - just one seen, flycatching from tall trees near the entrance to the Fajara golfcourse102. Blue-bellied Roller - several seen, including a couple around the paddies near Kotu creek and one at Tujering. The flight shot isn't very good, but it illustrates just how stunning these birds are when they spread their wings...

103. Rufous-crowned Roller - one or two seen at Tujering.104. Abyssinian Roller - stunning bird! Suzanne foundthe first one perched in a dead tree below our balcony in the hotel grounds, much to our delight, and others were seen at Tujering and Fajara.

105. Swallow-tailed Bee-eater - another gorgeous bird; I saw two or three at the far end of Abuko, beyond the hyena pens.

106. Little Bee-eater - fairly common, seen well at Bijilo and Brufut amongst other place. Rather confiding and photogenic!

107. White-throated Bee-eater - small numbers seen between the entrance to Bijilo and the beach.108. Rose-ringed Parakeet - commonly heard screeching away in flight.... just like West London!109. Senegal Parrot - a couple seen, unfortunately in flight only, at Faraba Banta110. Violet Turaco - simply doesn't look real! Fairly easy to see at Abuko on both visits, an amazing sight in flight showing bright cerise primaries.

111. Green Turaco - scarcer, but still seen well at Abuko (in a mixed group of turacos) thanks to Ebrima's expertise.

Sunday, 26 July 2009

Suzanne and I spent the day round on the opposite side of London, looking for a couple of new butterflies. The weather wasn't kind (should've paid more attention to the forecast before we went!), but in a few sunnier intervals we managed to catch up with Wood White (at Botany Bay near Chiddingfold) and about 10 rather worn Silver-washed Fritillaries at Straits Inclosure in Alice Holt Forest near Farnham. We also caught up with a pretty good pub lunch at The Parrot in Forest Green... though unlike the butterflies, this didn't linger long enough for photos!

After lunch, we headed home fairly quickly, since I'm still failing to fight off a really annoying cough and feeling pretty tired. No other pork-related symptoms, fortunately, but I think a trip to the doctors is probably still in order.

Saturday, 25 July 2009

Although today's trip to Norfolk didn't produce the 'big one' I was hoping for, it was still very pleasant. I came away with a whole heap of pleasing photos, a yeartick in the form of two adult Curlew Sandpipers... and sunburnt arms!

Arriving at Salthouse just after 7am, a number of birders were already scattered between the beach carpark, the coast road, and Kelling Water Meadows. I recce'd with Shaun and the Dip Monkey, and we did our bit searching the area east of the water meadows towards the Muckleburgh collection. However, despite excellent looking habitat and our collective best efforts, we couldn't find a Cuckoo of any description, let along a Great Spotted. Some other birders were trying more novel bird-finding strategies, but I feel this is probably not in the bird's best interests...The other guys headed back home mid morning to recoup brownie points and do some window fitting, leaving me happily messing about with the macro lens again. Two species in particular were amazingly abundant: 7-spot ladybirds were just everywhere, surely numbering in the hundreds of thousands, with every fence post covered in them!

And there had obviously been a big hatch of 'new' Painted Lady butterflies, much fresher-looking than those in the initial arrival.

As I continued my walk along the north edge of Kelling Water Meadows, I very nearly failed to notice a group of Sand Martins perched on a low wire fence. Fortunately I stopped dead when the first one chirruped in alarm, and they stayed put, giving great photo opportunities. I'm really happy with the first shot in particular - one of the best I've taken, in my opinion.

All the brambles and thistles along the tracks round Kelling were covered in more butterflies than I've seen in quite a while. Gatekeepers were very abundant:

... and the supporting cast included Peacocks and many Six-spot Burnet moths.

90. White-faced Scops Owl - two seen roosting in trees along Brufut entrance track91. Long-tailed Nightjar - one of the highlights of the holiday, a local guide showed us one roosting at Brufut. Simply stunning! Click to enlarge...

The more dedicated readers amongst you will, no doubt, have been wondering whether Suzanne and I saw just 51 species in the Gambia in February (setting some kind of anti-birding record), or whether I'm just too lazy to finish writing the report. Yeah, no contest, it's impossible to not see birds in the Gambia - I'm guilty as charged.

However, since the Great Spotted Cuckoo has disappeared from Salthouse, and it's raining cats and dogs outside, here's another instalment...

69. Slender-billed Gull - c10 at Tanji; about time there was another British record!

70. Kelp Gull - one of the Tanji specialities, we saw one or two, though distantly.71. Yellow-legged Gull - Tanji72. Lesser Black-backed Gull - common on the coast73. Caspian Tern - most numerous at Tanji, plus single over Abuko, and several at Kotu74. Royal Tern - common offshore

Wednesday, 22 July 2009

Jealousy is a terrible thing, I'm told.... but the fact that a certain Wanstead-based birder has seen a Blue-cheeked Bee-eater is almost turning me green. (Or should that be turquoise?). Despite the superb run of lifers I enjoyed this spring, this would have topped the lot by a country mile, Collared Flycatcher and all.

After the news broke from Bockhill at about 10.30, I started making plans to leave work as early as possible after lunch, travel down to Kent and then complete my hours from home in the evening. In the past, this fortunate type of flexible working arrangement has done me (and my British List) proud, and I remained hopeful for quite some time while the bird was still showing and my phone was running red hot with lifts offered and wanted. One conversation concluded with something like: DB - "OK then, might see you later - good luck!"; Unnamed twitcher joining the M2 - "Cheers...... I'm accelerating nowwwwww..."

Unfortunately, the news took a turn for the worse just before I left the city, and by the time I got home there was still no sign. I opted to resume work, and took scant consolation from optimising a knotty database query involving 20 million data rows. Thrilling, I know.

By early evening, it was clear that a trip to Kent was not required (and, for my money, any readers in France, Belgium or Holland should definitely go birding tomorrow!). In a bid to see at least some birds, I wandered down the road to check out KGV Reservoir. For those who haven't visited this ornithological cornucopia, here's a panorama:

So, a big concrete basin, with another one just like to across a causeway to the north. It's not at its most birdy in July, but there were at least a few returning waders. A couple of adult Little Ringed Plovers probably hadn't come from far away, but a minimum of 21 Common Sandpipers must've been better travelled. Just to prove I can still take a bad digiscoped photo when I put my mind to it, here they are:

So, Common Sandpipers: very charismatic, and always good to see.

But they resolutely kept going 'sweesweeswee', not 'prrrruuk', and they definitely weren't turqouise. Oh well.

David and Suzanne Bradnum

...in South Africa, August 2012

About us

"David the obsessed and Suzanne the tolerant" - Jonathan Lethbridge

That just about sums it up! David has always loved birding and spending time outdoors. Suzanne enjoys the odd twitch and birding holiday now and then, but generally she's happy to let him get on with it while spending time crafting at home. See what she gets up to on her own blog.